Massive subsidies and quotas for biofuels are wreaking social and environmental havoc and in many cases actually exacerbating climate change, says a new Christian Aid report.
It demands a radical overhaul of governments' multi-billion dollar support for biofuels, so that only crops which offer genuine greenhouse gas savings and wider social benefits are encouraged.
'Vast sums of European and American taxpayers' money are being used to prop up industries which are fuelling hunger, severe human rights abuses and environmental destruction - and failing to deliver the benefits claimed for them,' says the report's author Eliot Whittington, a Christian Aid climate advocacy specialist.
'The current approach to biofuels has been disastrous. Policymakers should urgently re-think their entire approach to biofuels, to ensure that only crops and fuels which will achieve their social and environmental goals receive government backing.
'Major reforms are also vital to prevent the damage already caused by biofuel plantations in Latin American and Asian countries from being repeated in Africa.'
The report, Growing Pains, also urges governments to adopt a 'new vision' on biofuels, seeing them as a force for rural development in poor countries, rather than a silver bullet solution to climate change.
'Christian Aid believes that the best approach to biofuels is to grow them on a small scale and process them locally to provide energy for people in the surrounding community,' adds Mr Whittington. 'This can also increase rural people's incomes and has the potential to actually increase soil fertility and moisture retention, without compromising people's food security.'
The report includes examples of communities which are growing biofuels on a small scale to supply their own energy needs - for instance in Mali, where farmers are growing jatropha alongside millet and sorghum.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A small house can be seen in front of a coal-burning power station located on the outskirts of Beijing August 17, 2009. China should set firm targets to limit greenhouse gas ...
